South Dakota State football dominates Montana, wins second-straight FCS national title

It wasn't pretty in the first half but when the dust settled, the South Dakota State football team won their 29th consecutive game and was standing on the podium for the second consecutive year after defeating Montana, 23-3, in the FCS national championship game.

First-year head coach Jimmy Rogers was the first to hoist the trophy over his head as the sea of Jackrabbits fans that overtook the field cheered him on.

"That first one was just really, really sweet because it was the first one and we got to see the other team do it three years ago, be up on that stage where we weren't," quarterback Mark Gronowski said after the game. "And all the guys that have put in so much work. As coach was saying earlier, we have so many six-year guys that gave so much to this program and to do it for them is probably the sweetest part of it."

South Dakota State took an early 7-0 lead but never looked comfortable in the first half. Montana put together a strong first drive, carving up the typically smothering Jackrabbits defense, and was a yard away from scoring on fourth down before Adam Bock came up with the stop of the game right outside the end zone.

"Jason (Freeman) did a good job of setting that edge there, and I knew I had the next fit after that," Bock said of the game-changing play. "I've been on too many of the wrong side of those. It was just huge to come up with that in a big-time game."

A few plays later, Gronowski threw an uncharacteristic interception and Montana capitalized on great field position with a field goal. After that field goal, it became a defensive showdown with neither team able to score in the rest of the first half.

The Jackrabbits' defense was largely stellar throughout the game, apart from that first Montana drive, but the offense finally started to get going in the second half.

On the second drive of the third quarter, Gronowski drilled a 34-yard pass to Zach Heins to get SDSU in the red zone. Then Gronowski ran it in himself on the next play from 10 yards out, increasing the SDSU lead to 14-3. On their following possession, Gronowski completed a 23-yard touchdown pass to Jadon Janke to seemingly put the game out of reach.

"We just gave up too many explosives, too many big plays," Montana senior linebacker Braxton Hill said postgame.

Gronowski was named the most outstanding player in the FCS national championship game for the second consecutive season. He completed 13 of his 21 passes for 175 yards and one touchdown. He was also the second-leading rusher with 62 yards and a score on eight carries.

The SDSU defense continued to perform at the highest level, forcing a fumble on Montana's drive after the Janke score and the offense quickly added a field goal to give the Jackrabbits their largest lead of the game, 23-3.

South Dakota State completely shut down the Grizzlies rushing attack. The Jackrabbits held Montana to only 61 rushing yards.

Rogers said after the game that this was the best overall team in South Dakota State history and that he'd put this year's defense up against any other in FCS history. They allowed only 15 total points, 12 to Villanova and 3 to Montana, in their four-game championship run.

That's unheard of.

"This is the best defense in FCS history," Rogers said. "And I'm proud of that. (I'm) proud of this football team, proud to go back-to-back, proud to do it with these guys. I'm blessed to be head coach."

This was the last game for many fixtures in the South Dakota State starting lineup such as Mason McCormick, Garret Greenfield, Jaxon and Jadon Janke among others. Rogers said what he'll miss most about this year and this team is the people.

"I coached a lot of these guys in the linebacker room, and we're going to be missing several of them (next year)," Rogers said. "That's probably the hardest thing for me is saying goodbye to people. (I'm) just glad we didn't let them down. We did what we said we would do."

Jonathan Fernandez covers high school and college sports for the Argus Leader. Contact him at jfernandez1@argusleader.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JFERN31

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota State football topples Montana to win FCS national title